Happy Holidays from down under! Or almost down under. The holiday season is celebrated quite differently here in NZ, as to be expected as summer is really getting going now. Life is still great here in Tauranga, and looks like they're going to continue being great. Now..where to begin?
Thanksgiving was spent with wonderful American and Kiwi friends in the sun. Unfortunately, Kiwis aren't as keen on Turkey as we are, so Abby and I had to resort to making a duck and a chicken. That's two thirds of a turduckin, so we called it good.
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| yum |
We of course dressed up in the traditional Native American garb, headdresses, and enjoyed champagne while our new friend Toby carved the birds. He became first place bird carver.
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| first place |
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| perfect sweet potatoes |
After a fun Thanksgiving, our friends Gus and Abe returned to us after spending some days doing two of New Zealand's "Great walks." There are nine Great walks in NZ now, and as you can tell by their title, they're great. They are so named because they are usually the most popular, and always the most expensive. NZ has a really awesome hut system set up in their backcountry. Along multi-day tramping tracks the Dept. of Conservation has built huts, and trampers are welcome to stay in them for a small (or in the case of Great Walks, quite large) fee. They eliminate the need to carry a tent, sleeping pad, and other heavy items which is really nice, but not always necessary. Anyways, back to the holiday topic at hand.
Just a few days after our Kiwi Thanksgiving, another American joined the colony here in Tauranga. Our friend Levi flew in. This warranted a mini vacation to some beautiful natural hot springs close to Napier.
Over the next few weeks, the apartment was quite crowded with so many Americans living under one roof, so we took as many chances as possible to go explore beautiful New Zealand. Here a few pics...
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| Rock climbing/camping at a new crag |
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| 'the mount' as seen from Matakana island |
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| just another beautiful Tauranga sunset |
As Christmas crept closer and closer, it was weird to experience the weather getting warmer and warmer. I had to remind myself that Christmas was coming. My mind knew it, but I never really got in the Christmas spirit. I was just excited for the week and a half I would have off from work during the Holidays.
As I left Tauranga for my week and a half holiday trip, I was semi excited to be back living in the trusty ol' Mitsubishi Chariot again. Living in a car is not always such a bad thing. We first traveled to Lake Tarawera with a kiwi friend and spent the day sailing on his 21 footer and stayed the night near some amazing hot springs (I like hot springs, have you noticed?) Christmas day was spent climbing at Waipapa.
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| on lake Tarawera |
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Happy Holidays from some NZ travelers!
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Next, on to do some spelunking in the Central North Island. Glow worms everywhere! Unfortunately cave pictures rarely come out very well, but I find these cave pics entertaining.
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| yum |
After caves were thouroughly explored, we went to Raglan. An amazing little surf town on the West coast. Rain and living in a car doesn't add up well, so we splurged on a hostel for the night.
After Raglan, it was straight up to Northland to see the second largest trees in the world. Kauri trees! These beautiful giants are truly amazing, though, like most natural beautiful things in this world, there is a disease killing them and great care has to be taken when visiting them. We made sure to clean our soles and got to visit 'The Father of the Forest' the 'King of the Forest' and the 'Four Sisters.'
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| yup, there's four of them |
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| 16 meteres girth. big guy |
After checkin out the amazing giants, and searching in vain for a kiwi (I heard a kiwi call at a campsite though, it was awesome! Too bad they're tricky to spot), we met up with Gus, Abe and Levi who had been way up north planting kumara (sweet potatoes) for about a month. That meant it was party time, New Years was upon us and as is tradition; a music festival. Northern Bass. We celebrated a day ahead of everyone else, and, clearly, it was awesome.
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